Just saw the new Horror Adventures kinetic powers that give you an Improved Familiar with your type of Elemental. So I tried to figure out if Aether Elementals were legal familiars, or if they're legal as regular Improved Familiars.
But I don't see anything even about regular Improved Familiar Elementals, or other Core Rulebook Improved familiars like Mephits.
Are Small Elementals and Mephits not legal Improved Familiars in PFS? I assumed that since Mephits were listed in the "familairs that can use wands" FAQ, and were in the Core Rulebook, they were legal. Have I been screwing this up the whole time?
Somewhat relatedly, is there any limit from Bestiary's on what can be summoned?
For summonses you're stuck with the list in the core rulebook, unless you have a feat, are a follower of certain deities, or have a weird item/ability.
I was thinking specifically about aether elemental from beastiary 5 which would still fall under the elemental any list in the core rule book. Is there some other additional resource required to make them legal to summon?
Markov Spiked Chain wrote: I was thinking specifically about aether elemental from beastiary 5 which would still fall under the elemental any list in the core rule book. Is there some other additional resource required to make them legal to summon? PFS leadership limited the Summon spells, from the CRB, to the 4 basic elements in Bestiary 1 - air, earth, fire and water.
Elemental (any) in the Core Rulebook only applies to air/earth/fire/water.
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A naturally invisible, flying, telekinetic throwing (based on its Hit Dice, which scales with effective wizard level) elemental makes for a delightful opponent but isn't necessarily an appropriate familiar for a PC.
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John Compton wrote: A naturally invisible, flying, telekinetic throwing (based on its Hit Dice, which scales with effective wizard level) elemental makes for a delightful opponent but isn't necessarily an appropriate familiar for a PC. Especially if that PC has full BAB as an Eldritch Guardian.
Ah well. Unfortunately my Aetherkineticist doesn't have a choice. I wish they'd been appropriately powered and allowed rather than OP and banned. :(
Regard my initial question, it looks like Familiar Folio makes Mephit and Elementals (presumably still only CRB elementals?) legal even though they're not explicitly listed in the Bestiary entry.
The improved familiar feat in the CRB is PFS legal. It lists the small elemental as an option.
(Or am I misunderstanding the question?)
The question was whether the CRB table is enough to make them legal, or if they needed to be in the Bestiary entry (where their stats would come from) also.
Additional Resources for Bestiary wrote: Familiars: all familiars listed on pages 131–133, and imp, pseudodragon, quasit; That's three Improved Familiars from the CRB table, but not including Stirge, Elemental, Mephit, or Homunculus. So I got paranoid my Mephit buddy wasn't legal.
Ahh. Those mentioned do not have a 'familiar' entry in their statblock. A small elemental is a small elemental, but a hawk becomes a magical beast.
Similarly dinosaur companions can happen because they have smaller, special, AC stat blocks.
At least that is how I have always interpreted it. In any case your mephit is good to stay. :)
there are wysps(spelling?) in B5 that are elemental beings and work well with kineticists.
Ok, now that Horror Adventures are added to Additional Resources, and Elemental Whispers + Greater Elemental Whispers are legal, this is a real question:
Do Spark of Life and Elemental Whispers(Greater) make Aether Elementals legal for Aether Kineticists as Familiars/Summoned creatures?
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My Aether Kineticist is thinking about taking Elemental Whispers, with an eye for Greater Elemental Whispers. Greater Elemental Whispers is clearly PFS legal, and clearly allows Aether Elementals as Improved Familiar choices for Aetherkineticists. I don't see anything else banning Aether Elementals.
John, was that meant to be a blanket PFS ban of Aether Elementals? Should this be in the Additional Resources or Campaign Clarifications if it's really a ban?
Markov Spiked Chain wrote: My Aether Kineticist is thinking about taking Elemental Whispers, with an eye for Greater Elemental Whispers. Greater Elemental Whispers is clearly PFS legal, and clearly allows Aether Elementals as Improved Familiar choices for Aetherkineticists. I don't see anything else banning Aether Elementals. In the same way as summon monster doesn't allow you to summon anything other than the 4 base elementals (despite the straight wording of the spell allowing it) I don't imagine you can get an aether elemental as a familiar.
Curaigh wrote: Ahh. Those mentioned do not have a 'familiar' entry in their statblock. A small elemental is a small elemental, but a hawk becomes a magical beast. If you look at the distinction between animals and magical beasts, by the creature types, the main distinction is that magical beasts are intelligent. If you at the PRD on the animal type, you'll see that no animal may have an INT of 3 or higher. Meanwhile, magical beasts can have INT scores higher than 2.
Honestly, as written, animal companions should become magical beasts when their INT becomes 3 or more, but I think their rules grant them special exceptions.
This Blog post explains how intelligent animals work in pathfinder.
DesolateHarmony wrote: This Blog post explains how intelligent animals work in pathfinder. PFS has a few exceptions to that blog post, however; namely, they don't get a language just for having Int 3+.
Also a special PFS rule: an animal's maximum number of tricks (excluding bonus tricks from druid level) is three per point of Int.
@andreww I can almost buy the argument that Elemental (Any) really means Elemental (from Bestiary 1) for Summon Monster or Improved Familiar. But Greater Elemental Whispers has no such ambiguity. It says an Aetherkineticist can take an (Aether) Elemental as an Improved Familiar. No part of that is banned in PFS, or ambigious. But this whole thread sort of implies that Aether Elementals really shouldn't be Improved Familiars for PFS?
SCPRedMage wrote:
Also a special PFS rule: an animal's maximum number of tricks (excluding bonus tricks from druid level) is three per point of Int.
That isn't a special PFS rule. Its a clarification of the core rules statement that 1 int= 3 tricks 2 int= 6 tricks 3 int= Question mark? tricks. Yes, you follow the pattern out
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